About the performer

Ken Peplowski's Tribute to Benny Goodman Big Band

New York Times music critic John S. Wilson called KEN PEPLOWSKI "a clarinetist with a Benny Goodman tone and a Buddy DeFranco style."
As Ken was a member of Goodman's working orchestra, the comparison is not surprising.

Ken already casts a long shadow in the music world. He has an astounding 16 solo albums with the prestigious Concord Jazz recording label. Always a top contender in Down Beat's critics and readers polls, Ken tours the globe 12 months a year performing in the top jazz clubs, performing arts center, jazz festivals, and symphony halls. Ken's most recent compact discs on Koch Jazz, All This… and ...And Heaven Too, were recorded live in London.

Ken made local radio and television appearances and played orchestral and jazz arrangements before joining the Tommy Dorsey Band under the direction of Buddy Morrow in 1978.

During the '80s he began recording and performing with musicians as diverse as Mel Tormé, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, Tom Harrell, Hank Jones, Leon Redbone, Woody Allen, Erich Kunzel, and Rosemary Clooney. Then, in 1984, Benny Goodman put together a new big band to do some touring. Benny personally auditioned Ken and hired him as a tenor saxophonist.

In 1988, Carl Jefferson, the founder and President of Concord Records, tapped Ken to record his first solo album entitled Double Exposure. The title calls attention to his proficiency on both clarinet and tenor saxophone. Fifteen albums followed, including The Natural Touch in 1992, for which he won the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize for Best Jazz Record of the Year.

In addition to his great musicianship, Ken is regarded as an extremely entertaining performer. His warmth, wit, and humor delight audiences. Ken resides in New York with his wife Kerstin and their son Jeffrey.